[thirtiesradio]

Here is my 1935 shouldered 16B. It is the radio on the upper right. It will come inside when finished. Still haven't done the cabinet. I restored the chassis and replaced all capacitors and every resistor. I've found when you replace all the resistors with close to original tolerances the radios really play well. This will be a nice radio when done and all the original inside papers are still attached. I really like the 16B and I'm buying another version as I'm so impressed with their performance. I have a radio bar with an 11 tube chassis that plays but it needs to have the bakelite blocks rebuilt.

Note from site admin: Sorry, but the photos which were attached to this post are no longer available.

[Glenn Roberts]

Nice looking set of Tombstones!!

Glenn

[thirtiesradio]

Nice looking set of Tombstones!!

Glenn

Thank you Glenn. The Philco 16B is the best performing table top radio I own.

[Ron Ramirez]

Nice 16B! I have a shouldered 16B just like yours, I just completed the process of refinishing it a couple days ago. I made the top and sides darker than I should have; I need to invest in some of Mohawk's "Ultra Classic" toner which has dye instead of pigment. Still, it looks a lot better than it did when I bought it. I managed to save the original PHILCO decal, too.

[TA Forbes]

Very nice set!! Agree about the 16 series radios! I think the tombstone sets sound better due to their larger speaker.

[thirtiesradio]

Thank you both for your replies. Yes the large speaker is probably what makes it my best sounding tombstone. The performance is better than my other sets as well so I'd say it is my "best everything set"
Ron, I'm going to do my cabinet soon. I bought the extra dark walnut Mohawk toner you suggested. Does it come out too dark?

[Ron Ramirez]

Well, after carefully examining as many shouldered 16B photos I could find in which the set appeared to have at least some of its original finish, I now feel that Extra Dark Walnut is just a shade or so darker than the original. However, Medium Dark Walnut is too light. It should be somewhere in between...and I'm not sure if Mohawk carries such a color.

Mohawk's color samples online leave a lot to be desired. The samples do not match how they will look when sprayed on wood.

The regular Tone Finish has a lot of pigment, and will quickly take on the look of paint after a few coats. The Ultra Classic uses dye instead of pigment, and will allow the wood grain to still show through.

I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused in my previous recommendation, but I think it would still look better with Extra Dark Walnut and be slightly darker than the original, than if it were refinished in a monotone Medium Walnut which would be totally wrong.

If I don't forget, I'll post a photo of my recently refinished shouldered 16B later, and you can judge for yourself. I'm waiting for the lacquer to completely outgas and harden before I rub it down and reinstall everything including new grille cloth.

[thirtiesradio]

Well, after carefully examining as many shouldered 16B photos I could find in which the set appeared to have at least some of its original finish, I now feel that Extra Dark Walnut is just a shade or so darker than the original. However, Medium Dark Walnut is too light. It should be somewhere in between...and I'm not sure if Mohawk carries such a color.

Mohawk's color samples online leave a lot to be desired. The samples do not match how they will look when sprayed on wood.

The regular Tone Finish has a lot of pigment, and will quickly take on the look of paint after a few coats. The Ultra Classic uses dye instead of pigment, and will allow the wood grain to still show through.

I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused in my previous recommendation, but I think it would still look better with Extra Dark Walnut and be slightly darker than the original, than if it were refinished in a monotone Medium Walnut which would be totally wrong.

If I don't forget, I'll post a photo of my recently refinished shouldered 16B later, and you can judge for yourself. I'm waiting for the lacquer to completely outgas and harden before I rub it down and reinstall everything including new grille cloth.

Thanks Ron. No problem. I may use medium walnut for the first few coats and the extra dark walnut for the final one on a piece of scrap to see how it comes out first. If you post a photo that would be great!

[Ron Ramirez]

Here's a photo:
[Image: http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k420/.../16bnf.jpg]

I can tell you from my own experience with this cabinet, you do not want to spray a lighter tone color over a darker tone color. I tried that with this cabinet on the top, sides, and trim - I sprayed a light base coat of Extra Dark Walnut, followed by a coat of Medium Dark Walnut. The result was bad...really bad. So, since I did not want to strip and start over, this cabinet has more than the usual coats of Extra Dark Walnut to try and hide the one coat of Medium Dark Walnut. In fact, under bright light, some of the Medium Dark Walnut still shows through. But I am leaving it as is; it looks good on the top and the front, at least. You can't tell the difference on the sides, either, as long as you are not shining a bright light on the sides.

Now, if your first coat is Medium Walnut followed by the dark coats (Extra Dark Walnut), you will be OK. I sprayed the front panel first with Medium Walnut, and did not bother to mask off the top and sides. However, when I sprayed the top and sides with the darker toners, of course I carefully masked off the front panel. The darker toner covered the Medium Walnut just fine.

The decal is the original 1935 PHILCO decal, not a reproduction.

[thirtiesradio]

Thanks Ron. Looks good. I can see what you were talking about the color hiding the grain but the color looks good. I'll use that color and will try the medium first. I could always stain the wood first which would make the grain stand out. The problem I have with staining is it can make the overall color blotchy. I'm going to mask off the front and strip the sides and top.
The medium looks real good in the center and I'll use that as well. My decal looks good so I'll be able to save it. The top-front is the worst with lots of finish nicks.
The front is nice with just the small nicks in the top area to the left of the decal shown in the photo. The bottom is real nice.

Overall I think you did a great job

Note from site admin: Sorry, but the photo which was attached to this post is no longer available.

[Ron Ramirez]

Mine had the same type of nicks, areas of missing finish, etc.; especially on the top. But, overall, it was worse than yours appears to be. I scraped the top, and the old finish came off easily. The same happened on one of the sides. But the finish refused to budge on the other side by scraping, so I was forced to get out the harsh chemicals. Even at that, the old finish didn't come off without putting up a fight first.

There was a lot of finish missing from the front panel. Since I was stripping the cabinet anyway, I also went over the front panel. I just barely put the chemicals over the PHILCO decal, expecting it to melt away. I was very happy when it didn't! So that portion of the finish is sort of original, with new lacquer over the top of it.

[Arran]

One idea might be to use a lighter colour of tone spray and simply put more coats on it, I did this with a radio by spraying several coats of brown mahongany tone spray over the clear laquer, it is a little reddish but you can't tell except under bright light. It was a pair of sets that I had refinished before I know about shading laquer so I tried to use oil stain to darken the shaded areas but it that never works. The reason I used brown mahogany is that was the closest dark tone spray I could find at the time.
Another idea may be to dye the wood that you intend to tone spray using either aniline wood die or brown fabric dye like Rit. Then you don't have to put as many coats on to cover up the blond wood so it won't look as opaque.
Regards
Arran

[Marsupial]

I just barely put the chemicals over the PHILCO decal, expecting it to melt away. I was very happy when it didn't! So that portion of the finish is sort of original, with new lacquer over the top of it.

Is there a known working ethod to purposely protect vintage decals when they are good but the radio needs refinish?

I am thinking they did a good job on placing the logo on an exposed but not easily damaged area and most radios needing refinish might have a still good logo decal. In any case, mine it. It would be a shame to replace a perfect logo with sub-par replica just because somewhere else on the radio isn't in great shape.

[Doug Houston]

I haven't refinished a cabinet in a few years, but when I was doing it, I was never happy with the prepared toned lacquers, so I made mine up the hard way.

I already had the DEFT semi gloss lacquer (wood finish). I'd buy several colors of RIT clothing dye. It's aniline dye with salt mixed. I got some coffee filters and some color thinner. This is the slower drying lacquer thinner, used for final color lacquers. I put the RIT into a coffee filter and poured thinner into it. The thinner comes out tinted, but with some salt. One more filter, possibly with 2 filter thicknesses. That should get all of the salt out. I generally kept each color in a separate container. After making black, red, and green, or blue-green, I could mix tinted thinners with some DEFT, and have the toned lacquer I wanted. Just mixing red and a teeny black will give you brown, but too red brown. That's why you ad a bit of green, to give you a green brown, rather than a red brown. You get the feel of it after a while. I did several cabinets using that tinted lacquer, and the came out like new.

After the toned lacquer is fogged over the whitewood on the cabinet, and matches the stained waalnut to your satisfaction, then put on the first clear coat over the whole cabinet. Decal can go on here. When you clear coat over the deal, fog on the clear lightly, so as not to damage the decal. Once that coat sets up, then close in with the final clear coat (s).

Othyer than that, there's nuttin' to it.

[codefox1]

Oh, I so want to try that out. I still have a stash of rapidly deteriorating artist pigments, must be 50+ years old which I pick out and dilute with linseed oil and paint thinner to fix up flaws and paint in patches with a couple of tiny "spotting" brushes left over from the film era when I still had decent eyesight. Anyway, of the hue, value, and chroma, surprisingly the value is most important (roughly speaking grey scale.)